What is Project RE_ ?

What motivates people into making their own stuff? Is it to save money? Is it to express themselves? Or is it just a human need to create, as proposed by the Italian philosopher Piero Ferrucci.

Some people appreciate standing out of
the crowd by creating a unique product. Others build to show off their skills and
values. Today, with the rise of automated manufacturing machines and the access to cheap and intuitive 3D programs, the quest for customization will become a reality. Project RE_ is studying do-it-yourself communities and the capacity of their members to reproduce locally objects designed in other countries. This experiment is based on the open source principles and on the successful business model of Instructables, an international DIY community owned by Autodesk. Project RE_ also studies upcycling* as a new urban aesthetic and presents do-it-yourself projects designed by Samuel N. Bernier*, founder of the blog. All 3D printing files and laser cutting files will aso be published on Thingiverse.

*to increase the value of a broken or unused object by giving it a new function or a new form.

* Samuel Nelson Bernier is an industrial designer from the countryside of Quebec. He studied product design in Montreal and Paris (ENSCI Les Ateliers). Project RE_ was created as a research for his graduation project at UdeM. The experiment is supervised by Louis-Philippe Pratte, founder of
“À Hauteur d'homme”, a sustainable furniture company. The project is also followed by Instructables, the biggest DIY community in America.